The following is an excerpt from “The Globe And Mail Makes Its Move”
For true believers of the digital media revolution, talk of the “next generation of print technology” might as well be a discussion on the next generation of blacksmith or 8-track tape technology. Between tablets, e-readers, apps and the good ol’ information superhighway, dead-tree print media is… well, dead, right? “Absolute crap,” says Phillip Crawley.
Sitting in The Globe and Mail‘s executive boardroom a few weeks before his newspaper unveils its newly redesigned print product to the country Oct. 1, the publisher is pointing to mocked-up examples of the newspaper as a key component to the company’s future.
“It really is the next generation of print technology that nobody else has in our market or even in North America,” Crawley says. “We see an advantage in that.”
Some, including the author of a biting feature in October’s Toronto Life, stare at an 18-year, $1.7 billion contract with printer Transcontinental and see investing in a media platform considered on the decline as a major gamble. But considering Canadian readership trends and advertisers’ appetite for multiplatform media, the Globe looks pretty safe there.
The real bet is that the come-hither advances of glossy paper stock and colour on every page, along with a renewed focus on lifestyle content across print, online and mobile, will woo enough of the advertisers the Globe has long-coveted to make it all worthwhile.
From the new red masthead to its smaller size (two inches shorter, marginally narrower), the typography and layout has changed and there is now a bigger difference between the weekday and weekend edition: one is for the hectic, on-the-go business week; the other for curling up with on the couch on a Saturday afternoon.
Online, there is a new standalone Globe Life site, the comments system has been updated and ad placements have been changed. And while the overriding goal is to improve its engagement with readers, financial success seems premised on the Globe‘s ability to lure in a slew of new advertisers from the luxury goods, fashion and beauty market as well as increase its attraction with current clients.
Contrary to popular belief, the Canadian newspaper industry is not the American newspaper industry, says Crawley. And while that is the exact sort of rallying cry you’d expect from a newspaper publisher, it’s also that of many media buyers. ZenithOptimedia president and CEO Sunni Boot says the Globe‘s redesign investment and Postmedia Network’s $1.1 billion acquisition of Canwest’s newspaper assets earlier this year speak volumes about the print medium and its value to advertisers and readers. “There’s no question it’s going to move digital,” says Boot. “People are consuming media on their e-readers and tablets, but there’s still a hell of a lot of people who like to feel the ink with their fingers.”
“Over the last two years, [people] have been reading all sorts of doom-laden predictions about the death of print,” says Crawley. “It’s true for some of the poorer examples of the newspaper business, who have dug their own grave over the last several years. They’ve lacked belief and commitment to invest. They’ve cut back on content and staff and they’re reaping what they’ve sown. For them it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. But don’t lump everyone in to that.”
The Globe, though, was not immune to recession-induced change, including staff reductions and contracting out some copyediting to an outside firm. Crawley maintains that these moves helped the company weather the economic downturn and position it for its current growth as well as the new design.
Both Crawley and editor John Stackhouse say the redesign marks a new commitment to storytelling across different media in a variety of ways.
The weekday paper will consist of shorter reads and more graphics that will help people quickly and efficiently digest information during the business week, says Crawley. Research showed that Globe readers spend up to triple the time with its weekend edition, so that’s when the paper will slow things down and offer longer, richer reads. Both will increase efforts to point readers online and to mobile offerings.
Vice-president of advertising sales Andrew Saunders says the print redesign is but one aspect, albeit a very large one, of a new overriding strategy to better marry the Globe‘s print and web products. He and Crawley met with more than 1,000 major advertisers and media buyers over the last year preaching the gospel of the new Globe, and the company’s sales team has undergone training with strategic sales consultant firm rogenSi to improve the ability to sell across media platforms.
“We’ve created new [ad sales] packages under the acronym HIP for high impact proximity,” says Saunders. “Advertisers will be able to place the positioning of an ad across all platforms–print, online, mobile, as well as e-mail newsletter capability. It’s multiplatform driven and gives advertisers a real competitive advantage of being strategically placed, which is a considerable change in direction but again leveraging multiple platforms.”
To read the full article, including advertisers’ thoughts on the redesign and insight into editorial niches the paper wants to dominate, see the Oct. 11 issue of Marketing, on newsstands today.
